When “Introvert” Became A Verb

If you’ve been on the internet for more than five minutes, you’ve likely seen the myriad of extrovert/introvert jokes flying around. I found a bunch when I was helping a friend find some for a blog post. It took approximately 2.3 seconds.

Okay, most of the jokes are about introverts. We’re in the minority, you see, and our behavior may seem odd to the more socially inclined.

I can be social for a time, but interaction drains my batteries. When that happens I may still be in the presence of others, but my contribution becomes little more than “yeah,” “uh huh,” and maybe an occasional unintelligible grunt.

My mom recognizes this and says it’s when I start introverting.

Hey, it’s not our fault! If you run a marathon, you run out of gas, right? Same idea.

The part that makes it extra fun is while socializing drains our energy, it does the exact opposite for extroverts. It’s like they’re siphoning energy from us via inane chatter.

All these jokes may seem teasing or even mean, but they’ve had a positive side effect: they’ve turned “introvert” into a verb (like my mom did).

We’ll ignore the comma error and appreciate the insight.

The internet has provided us a way to interact without interacting directly. The need to introvert is slower, but when it does hit, we can just leave! You can’t do that at a party (unless you find a cat or dog to pet).

We aren’t completely a-social. We like to visit with people who are our friends. My husband and I are both introverts and beat the odds and found each other.

We met at a party, even! It was at the house of a common friend and there was a movie involved but it still counts. We were strangers and yet we talked to each other.

This isn’t true…okay, it might be a little true.

So while the internet (and phones when in public) catch a lot of grief, I am thankful for the outlet. It’s made introverting more understood – and has also provided a means of escape.

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27 thoughts on “When “Introvert” Became A Verb”

Enjoyed all the introvert jokes. Actors are often introverts-when they’re not acting. Probably a disappointment to fans, but acting for performers is like an on off button, where they can go back to being an introvert the moment they step off stage. Does this make authors good at book launches?

It’s fun to use humor to better understand and explain the introvert experience. I can do fine in social situations, but leading up to simple things like a meeting or social event, I agonize. Being homeless is hell, but my RV is a sanctuary. It’s when we have to move to different sites or stay with friends and family and can’t have full hookups. I agonize over stupid things like, I have to pee but don’t want to go into the house/business because I have to potentially walk past people. The Hub wants to sell the RV now that we are in a region with friends or family we can stay with and I’d rather jump in a volcano. And these are people I love! I just can’t function fully with the introvert need kicking in. Oh, and I married an off the charts extrovert which can make the RV too loud and confined with his presence. He’s lucky I love him! The introvert in me often wants to slay the extrovert in him.

Fun post, and some of those memes are very humourous! I don’t know whether I’m an introvert, or whether I just dislike strangers and engaging in conversational topics I don’t care about. When I’m with people I’m comfortable with, talking about something nerdy (computer games, how better Marvel is than DC, etc) then you’d probably class me as an extravert. I think most people are a mixture of both, but just have a tendency (either slight or considerable) towards one or the other, with a few being extremes. Somewhere between the sublime and the ridiculous is probably a happy place full of well-rounded individuals.